Guarding possessions used by opposing ball handlers and screeners effectively is a game-changing ability
Stats review: Who has the best pick-and-roll defense?
Stats
3 Mins read
Round 12 of the BKT EuroCup featured a key matchup in Group A as Bahcesehir College Istanbul scored an 8-point victory at home to move one game clear of second-place Dreamland Gran Canaria. In a low-scoring affair, defense was the difference for the hosts.
Bahcesehir held Gran Canaria to just 15 points over 28 possessions created out of pick-and-rolls - one of the better single-game efforts in recent years in terms of efficiency. Allowing only 2 points to their pick-and-roll ball handlers - well below their 10.1 per game season average - they made things a struggle for the visitors in a game with obvious seeding implications.
They flipped the script on Gran Canaria who - even after conceding 41 points over 43 possessions in pick-and-rolls to Bahcesehir - remains far and away the best ball screen defense in the EuroCup on the year overall. Guarding possessions used by opposing ball handlers and screeners more effectively than anyone else by a comfortable margin, Gran Canaria has jammed up some of the better offenses in Group A. That held up against Bahcesehir who may not have gotten much scoring from their ball handlers or screeners, but found their shooters consistently out of two-man actions to the tune of 22 points over 21 spot-up possessions.
The table above lists the top pick-and-roll defenses in the EuroCup so far in terms of points per possession allowed. The main differentiator keeping Gran Canaria in a tier by itself to this point has been the way it has protected the paint without giving much back on the perimeter. Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem and Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv have fallen in between Gran Canaria and the pack in terms of how well they contest shots inside the arc, but they have better-defined strengths and weaknesses with Jerusalem fairing better guarding screeners and Hapoel doing a relatively better job not just defending the ball, but forcing ball handlers to beat them.
The strategy that goes into how teams defend ball screens at this level is significant and there can be as much value in dictating the action as defending it some nights. Aris Midea Thessaloniki embodies that with the pressure it brings to the ball and clogging up the passing lanes as it forces turnovers on around 20% of the pick-and-rolls they face, which is the top mark in the EuroCup. While Aris pays a price at times when passes get through, it forces enough mistakes to make up for it more often than not.
With the average possession created out of a pick-and-roll being converted for 0.96 points per possession this season due to Gran Canaria’s outlier performance, only six teams have been able to stay ahead of the curve, including the top two teams in both groups. With teams employing different strategies to stop pick-and-rolls against not just different teams, but individual players, that glances over a great deal of nuance, but with most teams creating over 40% of their total possessions out of those actions, the results certainly paint a picture.